I have read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. The story is of how a young girl ended up as a hermaphrodite. It traces the incestuous love affI have read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. The story is of how a young girl ended up as a hermaphrodite. It traces the incestuous love affairs of her family back two generations to Greece, quickly whisking them away to America. It is a family drama highlighting the immigrant experience, as well as the history of one of America's once-great cities.

The biggest problem with this book are the slightly weak final section, examining how the main character deals with their hermaphroditism. The analogies were occasionally tiredly postmodern. And the "present day" storyline felt tacked-on. But overall a very good book....more

What a strange book. It is essentially 250 pages of ant fanfic, which is why it gets as many stars as it does. First off, it's poorly written (or tranWhat a strange book. It is essentially 250 pages of ant fanfic, which is why it gets as many stars as it does. First off, it's poorly written (or translated, but probably it's the original writing that's the problem). Half the book is essentially a dumb and completely uninteresting "sideplot" containing a bunch of humans exploring a mysterious basement. It contains no character development and no reason for us to care about the characters. Also, the book makes tons of uncomfortable references to Chinese/Japanese/Indian/other asian cultures being as alien to "us" (the french) as ant society. And the ants aren't really ants so much as complicated individuals in ant bodies, kind of like A Bug's Life but slightly more scientifically accurate - but only slightly.

If I could, I'd give it 1.5 stars, but hey, two stars because it's a fast read and ant fanfic is pretty fun....more

A good book, though not on the level of Midnight's Children or The Satanic Verses. The plot revolves around a story of a story, attempting to captureA good book, though not on the level of Midnight's Children or The Satanic Verses. The plot revolves around a story of a story, attempting to capture the multicultural and polyglot lands of Mughal India and Europe. It contains typical postmodern questions concerning truth in storytelling; that's not necessarily a bad thing, but not a new thing either. A lot of it is very reminiscent of Pamuk's My Name is Red. Overall worth reading, and contains enough evocative turns of phrase to give some thrills to any reader that appreciates good writing....more